South Bend Chocolate Factory Tour

Two years ago we discussed going to the South Bend Chocolate Factory to take a tour, but we ran out of time.  Today's weather was cloudy and rainy and so we headed into downtown South Bend to do the tourist bit.  Of course, without me, the Mason clan has not toured this factory before and thus it was a new experience for all of us.

There are two tours; one is free and the other is $4 for adults and $1 for children under 12.  I had researched this tour and decided we would take the one that cost money as we were promised chocolate spoons and a goodie bag.  We signed up and received our golden tickets.

We had time before the tour started to head into the chocolate museum which told the history of chocolate and housed some of the world's oldest chocolate boxes, tins, and molds.  It was a small one room museum where most of the antiques were not behind glass, which made me nervous especially viewing the chocolate pots.

It was very informative.  We learned that Chicago was the candy capitol of the world, something we poo-pooed until we finished reading the reasons why this was so.  Chicago's windy city is a temperature dream in the candy making business as is its Midwest location where fresh candy making ingredients are homegrown such as milk and corn syrup.  It was also in the 1800's an easy shipping mecca for transporting the candy worldwide and it was home to many immigrants that brought with them a hard work ethic.

We got to see many of the original tins, wooden boxes, and molds that the were used back in the day.  The museum houses the largest heart shaped candy box holding 100 lbs. of chocolate.  We learned that Indiana has 22 different candy companies in the state with South Bend and Indianapolis having the most.  Evansville has, of course, Lib's candy.

Our tour began in the foyer of the factory where our guide, Chris, studying to be a dentist, took us through the making of chocolate.  There is a tree with lots of cacao bean pods growing on its branches and trunk.  One cuts these pods off with huge machetes.  We got to hold a replica of the pod which is very large and quite heavy.  I couldn't imagine having to carry a basket of those pods for any distance.  Once the pods are recovered, one cuts the bean open with procession.  Inside are 20 to 50 cacao beans that are picked out of the pod, fermented and dried.  After the drying process the shells are opened by hand and the tiny bean is extracted.  These beans are then smashed and ground and sent to large companies that turn it into chocolate.  South Bend is a company that adds some delicious ingredients to already made chocolate and molds them into cute shapes.

Our tour moved inside the factory, after we put on hair nets, where we got to watch the employees hard at work.  Employees actually still do things by hand such as these women who were putting out large pretzels to be covered by white chocolate.  The pretzels passed through the machine where they were covered in chocolate and then two women at the end took the pretzels out of the cooling machine and loaded them by hand into boxes.

At this point in the tour we were all given samples to eat.  Our group chose different varieties.  I had the dark chocolate coconut.  Susan had a milk chocolate covered peanut.  Darcy had an orange truffle.  Gabby had the white chocolate pretzel, and Madison had a milk chocolate creme filled.  Chris was very happy that we had one of each variety.

Next on the tour we were taken to the part of the factory where the boxing and wrapping occurs.  Again a lot of the work, such as putting the lids on the cellophane wrapped boxes, was done by humans.  A human loaded the boxes on to the conveyor belt, a machine attached the cellophane, and a human removed the boxes and applied the lids.  I thought perhaps this might be an interesting summer job.

We moved from the wrapping room out into the cafe area where we got to see the different molds that the company uses.  They supply specialty chocolates to many of the local companies, such as Notre Dame University and several banks.  At this time, those who had not coughed up the money for the golden ticket where excused, and the rest of us moved to a chocolate making area.  We were given golden spoons and a vat of chocolate, where we dipped our spoons and made a delicious treat.  These were then put into a freezer to cool while we continued on the tour.

Which consisted of a ten minute movie narrated by Senor Koko Bean, a comedian.  He did the warm-up act, which was very funny.  He gave us ten facts about chocolate like, a box of chocolates gives you your daily calorie intake and without chocolate being consumed in large quantities there would be no need for control top pantyhose.  The movie was short and sweet and then we were given our golden chocolate spoons.  I am a Hershey girl, but I was pleasantly surprised at the taste of the pure chocolate.

One of the last things we got to view was a solid chocolate 45 pound Santa Claus and 35 pound Easter Bunny, mainly sold to large companies for parties or giveaways.  Cost for these two delicacies?  $500 for Santa and $450 for the Bunny.  Susan said we would take two Santa's, but I don't think Chris thought we were serious.

We took off our hair nets, and Chris gave us each a bag of chocolates.  Our group came away with dark chocolate covered raisins, milk chocolate malted balls, and peanut and chocolate malted balls.   We then spent some time in the gift shop where we might have made some purchases, but I'm so sick of chocolate right now I can't think straight.